


The Right To Grow

by Anihan (Nakagami)



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, Kid!Fic, Trans Character, WAFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-21
Updated: 2012-06-21
Packaged: 2017-11-08 07:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/440638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nakagami/pseuds/Anihan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mrs. Holmes watches her two children play in the dirt and plants a garden with the help of her summer wards. </p><p>She hardly remembers the time when things were different.</p><p> </p><p>(Read the tags.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right To Grow

 

Violet Holmes stood rooted to the spot, feet planted securely in the freshly plowed garden. A maiden, the eldest of Violet's wards, waited downwind from her, delicate hands plucking inorganic debris from the dirt that Violet was plowing. Her other young wards were further downwind, fighting and playing in turn, gamely ignoring the Holmes siblings who rough-housed on the grass nearby.

 

They were imitating dinosaurs, Violet surmised. Sherlock was gnawing on Mycroft's suit jacket, no doubt enjoying more the valid excuse to ruin said article of clothing than the opportunity to play pretend. Her lips turned up in a subdued caricature of a smile. At age seven, her youngest was already a terror.

 

Mycroft gripped a handful of Sherlock's hair, doing one's utter best to remain poised and in control. It was a lost cause. Violet watched her youngest child scream in delight, eyes flickering closed and flicking tears onto Mycroft's sleeve. They were both laughing.

 

The maiden tripped. A few of the other wards came to her side, twitting about and cooing at the state of her dress. Violet did her best not to roll her eyes.

 

"Enough of that," she chastised. The wards looked surprised. Good. They'd get over this coddling soon enough. "There's no need for airs. Leila, the dress will clean or it will be lost, but what truly matters is at stake: Why ruin a pleasant day by worrying over what news tomorrow will bring?"

 

Oh. Apparently Sherlock had been listening, distracted by her words. Mycroft had managed to tear his mouth away from the sleeve, still crowing with laughter, absolutely overjoyed to be just a child for once. Sherlock regained focus and struggled against the irrefutable grasp on his hair, but all it did was make the siblings laugh harder.

 

Violet felt her own worries begin to fade.

 

Taking a hand of each of the two youngest wards, twin boys whose father was a bigot and regretted it, Violet pulled them over to the low bench where seeds had been lain in bowls arranged by color and type. Every bowl had been clearly labeled.

 

"Sherlock planned this for us,” she told the children that were not her own. The twin boys glanced apprehensively over at the other two, and Violet gave them a calculated beatific smile. “Yes, him. Don't let their play fool you: He has the mind of a scientist, both of them do. Now, these bowls are arranged by...”

 

The wards planted a handful each, intentionally mixing the entire lot. Violet helped the youngest but watched over them all. Mycroft had managed to wrestle Sherlock to the ground and grind the boy's hair into the freshly turned loam. Sherlock had retaliated by kissing him, spurning laughter throughout the entire family.

 

Amused at their antics but ever-wary of the weather, Violet called out to the mass of young. "It's enough of that game now, children. All hands are needed. Sherlock! Mycroft, put him down! Sherlock, stop with the-- oh, why do I bother.” Violet laughed softly then raised her voice over the sound of their increasing laughter. "Boys!"

 

At once, Mycroft's lanky body stiffened. Sherlock glanced up to meet her eyes, mouth already widening into a Cheshire grin. Only when Mycroft's gaze met her own did Violet realize what she had said.

 

The fear in Mycroft's eyes begged her not to take it back. Violet let out the breath that had been trapped behind her teeth. She forced her hands to unclench, her jaw to loosen and her lips to turn up into a smile.

 

"The rain is coming. Come and help us put this away. Leila, Sherlock, carry the bench inside. Mycroft, show your peers where the seeds go.”

 

Eyes on the crowd of young humans who had somehow ended up in her care, Violet realized that everything was going to be okay. She almost couldn't remember the time when she'd had a daughter.

 

But after Mycroft tucked the littles into bed and scooped Sherlock into his arms, depositing the indignant little boy on their mother's bed, Violet found that she was genuinely happy.

 

 


End file.
